


Overclocked

by Nebulad



Series: Whiskey Molotov [10]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Gen, Pre-Relationship, The Big Dig
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 08:25:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6416179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You killed Sonya!” Mel shrieked while she tried to get the ghoul’s grey matter off her rifle. It was really indicative of her new environment that she had a special cloth now used solely for getting body parts off of herself. “She was just starting to learn and you shot her!” </p><p>“I shot the ghoul!” Audrey insisted, mildly offended that he was second-guessing her aim.</p><p>“The .50 in her chassis suggests <i>otherwise.”</i> Mel flicked the bullet at her and she scowled. So she was a little off. Mel used a fucking knife— he could fuck right off about her aim.</p><p>“How the hell are we supposed to take down the walls now?” Bobbi demanded, lifting herself from a cool lean against a crumbling subway pillar.</p><p>“Jesus just patch up the robot,” Audrey insisted, gesturing around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overclocked

Drey had a cigarette clamped between her lips and her fingers drumming against the butt of her gun, and Cait thought that was just fucking hilarious. “Laugh it up,” she warned, her voice muffled by her attempt to keep the smoke in without reaching out to hold it. “Whatever shit goes down here, you’re going down with me.”

“Well when you say it like that I start wondering why I follow yer dumb ass around.” Cait rested her chin on Audrey’s shoulder, watching Sonya buzz and beep along the wall to look for a spot to blast through. “What you think Bobbi’s looking for?” she asked quietly.

“Something we don’t wanna goddamn find,” Audrey returned evenly. “But we’re running low on food and I could go for some Fancy Lads, so here’s hoping whatever we find has to eat too.”

“If we find something that has to eat, chances are it ain’t gunna want cake. Why’d you take the job if you don’t trust her?” Audrey shrugged heavily with the shoulder without the brawler perched on it. “You know the more you talk the more I wonder why I let you take charge.”

“We’re getting paid, and I like Goodneighbor,” she offered.

“You like the mayor,” Cait corrected, and Audrey shrugged her off. “Don’t fuckin’ lie, I can see your big gooey eyes even behind those stupid fuckin’ sunglasses of yours. You wanna swoop in to his office all puffed up because you pulled another job.”

“When you say it like that, I start wondering why I don’t bring Codsworth along more often.” Sonya found her spot and leaned back a little— it was sort of cute, like she was sucking in a great big breath— revealing a feral with an ugly bit of metal fused to its chest crawling out of a shipping container and towards the robot’s proud ginger papa. “Hit the floor, Mel!” she called, taking a heaving breath and crouching down. It was hell on her knees, but she aimed better the lower she crouched.

Sonya burst out her big boom and Audrey vaguely saw the shadow of the mechanic fall back on his ass to avoid a bullet in the brain. _Smart move, bud._ Audrey shot once, aiming for the head to disorient the thing while Cait stepped out with her shotgun and blasted one of its legs clean off.

After that it was a simple matter of driving the butt into its brain and brushing off the dust. Audrey had opted for black clothes— they hid the blood better— but found that truly nothing in the wasteland was sacred and if it wasn’t blood or dirt, it was dust.

“You killed Sonya!” Mel shrieked while she tried to get the ghoul’s grey matter off her rifle. It was really indicative of her new environment that she had a special cloth now used solely for getting body parts off of herself. “She was just starting to learn and you _shot_ her!”

“I shot the ghoul!” Audrey insisted, mildly offended that he was second-guessing her aim.

“The .50 in her chassis suggests _otherwise.”_ Mel flicked the bullet at her and she scowled. So she was a little off. Mel used a fucking knife— he could fuck right off about her aim.

“How the hell are we supposed to take down the walls now?” Bobbi demanded, lifting herself from a cool lean against a crumbling subway pillar. Audrey noted how she hadn’t moved a muscle during the fight— hell, if they all died down here, Bobbi could just take Sonya and keep going. The ferals would quit attacking her once the humans were all dead, and they were already well past the mirelurks. Cait seemed to have the same idea, openly scowling at the boss of the operation.

“Jesus just patch up the robot,” Audrey insisted, gesturing around. There were busted up Nuka machines, old subway cars, and if history had taught her anything? One of the ferals would have picked up some duct tape somewhere. She figured they liked the colour.

“I can’t just patch her up! I don’t have my tools, I don’t have materials, she requires _so much_ testing just to get her in— _what are you doing?”_ It was sort of funny how his voice jumped about seven octaves, but ferals put Drey on edge and she didn’t wanna hang around to see how many of them were gunna dig their way out of the walls. Subway stations were a special sort of hell even before they got bombed out and filled with mindless cannibals, and if Bobbi was telling the truth (unlikely) they’d eventually be able to _leave_ the station once they got going.

“Caity, you got that phone I picked up in Medford?” she asked, kneeling down next to Sonya’s weakly sparking case. The bullet didn’t go all the way through, but she’d have to be opened up if Drey was gunna fix whatever it’d got caught on.

“Got _all_ the stupid shite you pick up,” she grumbled, but plopped down in the dirt beside her and started digging through her bag. “Anything else while I’m elbow deep in junk?”

“Moonshine and wonderglue please,” she muttered. She’d lost the smoke when she’d taken the shot and was seriously regretting it now. Cait handed her both bottles and the old phone, leaning back on her elbows.

“You’re gunna wreck her!” Mel insisted.

“I’m gunna wreck _you_ if you don’t get outta my light, kid.” She felt old very suddenly, but shoved that thought away. It was weird to think about how much older she was than everyone, and even weirder how she didn’t even notice with Cait but this Mel guy was like hanging out for an hour in a high school.

“Let her work, Mel. It’s already busted anyway and I ain’t turning back now,” Bobbi rasped, taking a lounging seat on one of the benches. Audrey gestured at the ghoul and Mel made a half strangled noise before going over to sit next to Bobbi.

Audrey took a swig of the moonshine, cringing habitually as it deadened all the fucking nerves in her throat. She cracked open the phone with the side of her palm— God bless weak ass American plastic— and started digging through for the circuitry bits. Sonya’s motherboard was mercifully undamaged, as were most of her systems. It was just a bundle of wires that got fucked right to hell, and that was a fast fix.

“She needs _testing._ We can’t just let a robot emit a sonic boom in the middle of a collapsing subway tunnel and hope for the best!” Mel insisted.

“Exit’s over there,” Cait called, gesturing backwards.

“You wanna be a dear and find me some duct tape?” She certainly wouldn’t be gluing the outer plate back together— hell, she didn’t even like gluing the wires, but tape was too precious to apply liberally. It was one of those weird things that would run out someday, like Fancy Lads or Gwinett. They were relics from the war and had lasted a good two hundred years, sure, but they weren’t a renewable resource and she didn’t think the Commonwealth was ready to take up industry yet.

Cait tossed a roll from the bag at her and she caught it, getting back to work. She’d always been fairly tech savvy, and she wasn’t new to robotics. Hell, Nate’d bought Codsworth for her as a birthday present, so she had someone to tinker on— it just happened to be convenient that the Mr. Handy was a better mother than her. She remembered the month she’d had him programmed to call Nate _Cockerham—_ her poor dearly departed husband had no fucking idea how to make him stop, and eventually him and the robot had teamed up to very sternly insist she change it back. It was fairly hilarious to hear a very affronted Codsworth insist that she put _Mr. Cockerham’s_ name back to rights this instant.

The inside of an eyebot wasn’t an _enormous_ jump from Mr. Handy systems. They were actually a lot simpler— more akin to radios than fully functioning virtual intelligence systems, although she’d heard pre-war rumours about them developing personalities like Codsworth managed to. She wasn’t sure how they would manage, but she wasn’t _great_ with programming personality modules. Luckily, Sonya didn’t have a voice or any opinions (otherwise Audrey was sure she wouldn’t have hung around Mel, of _all_ fucking people).

She finished off the casing with a frugal duct tape patch, patting the side of the robot as it shimmied around on the floor before gaining its bearings and shooting back into the air. “Hey now.” Sonya lurched towards her, seeming sort of dizzy. “Take it slow, yeah? Let’s start down this tunnel and we’ll talk again at the next barrier.”

. . . . .

Mel stared at Audrey flatly over the busted up corpse of Sonya. Her full power blast had been a little bit… more powerful than anticipated. On the bright side, Bobbi had her route into what Audrey strongly suspected was not the Mayor of Diamond City’s stronghold and was bouncing at the top impatiently.

On the other hand, Sonya was _wrecked._

“Oh fuck off,” Audrey said, stomping by him. She was _great_ with robots.

**Author's Note:**

> [My Writing Blog](http://www.nebulaad.tumblr.com), if this ends up getting posted on a stream blog or something I'd appreciate you going to my blog and finding it there instead because I fucking hate stream blogs.


End file.
